SOCORRO, N.M., November 7, 2000 -- Four undergraduate teams comprised of New Mexico Tech computer science majors recently traveled to Las Cruces to compete in a regional computer programming contest and swept the field, returning to Socorro with the event's top four awards.

"New Mexico Tech did blazingly well this year at the New Mexico State University programming contest," says Tech student Danny Quist, one of three Tech students who made up the first- place- winning team.

Quist and fellow team mates, Ben Sittler and Jeff Shipman, correctly solved four out of the six problems posed during the daylong competition, coming out on top of 17 other teams which hailed from the University of Texas at El Paso, NMSU, and New Mexico Tech.

Solving the problems at the programming contest required using computer programs which the students developed "on-site" with various commonly used programming languages.

The New Mexico Tech team which placed second in the competition included team members Benjamin Gordon, Augustine Ortiz, and Jackson Peacock.

Third place was awarded to Zack Bradshaw, Ben Leiting, and Nick Pattengale.

And, Jon Bradley and Jeff Eliasen placed fourth.

Earlier this year, four teams from New Mexico Tech also fared well in the Sixteenth Annual Fort Lewis College Computer Programming Contest in Durango, Colo., with a Tech team winning that computing competition as well.

Faculty advisor for all four of New Mexico Tech's programming teams was Allan M. Stavely, associate professor of computer science with Tech's computer science department.